Forces pension staff to strike

Workers who administer armed forces pensions will strike for five days from today in a row over pay.

The Public and Commercial Services union said its members at US firm Computer Sciences Corporation had been offered a rise of 9p an hour, worth less than 0.5%.

The union’s 200 members, mostly based in Glasgow, are ex-Ministry of Defence staff who work as pension administrators and in IT on the MoD contract.

They have been working to rule for the last two months in opposition to the “obscene and insulting” pay offer and will now strike for five days from today, with the threat of further industrial action.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It is nothing short of obscene that this billion-dollar company is offering staff such an insulting pay increase.

“These workers are proud of the work they do for the armed forces but they are not even being given crumbs from the table by this eye-wateringly profitable US firm.”